In 2015 we finished re-building our Wild Salmon Recipes website to give you great recipes for cooking wild salmon— and encourage seafood consumers to make informed choices when buying salmon.

Upload a great salmon recipe in the fields on this page and we’ll consider it for inclusion on the site, with full credit to you!

What’s the problem with net-pen farmed salmon?

Worldwide, net-pen salmon farming has had devastating effects on wild salmon, steelhead and trout by spreading sea-lice and disease.

In net-pen salmon farms, hatchery salmon smolts are reared to adult size in floating ocean pens containing 500,000 to 750,000 fish. They are fed a diet of pelletized fish meal, oils, and grains such as soy, laced with antibiotics.

One researcher found that of the 32 million salmon in BC net pens, 600,000 potentially died of disease annually — and that every year, 30 “fish health events that indicated the presence of high risk diseases to sockeye salmon” were reported on salmon farms.

Disease is not the only problem. Besides antibiotics and seafloor pollution, these Atlantic salmon are also frequently bathed in “Slice” — aka emamectin benzoate, a shellfish-killing toxin — to remove sea-lice.

The truth about "Atlantic" salmon

It’s important to note that all Atlantic salmon for sale in grocery stores and restaurants are farmed. There are no “wild Atlantic salmon” for sale anywhere in North America, because native stocks in the Atlantic are on the verge of extinction.

If you live on the West Coast, chances are that the Atlantic salmon on your plate was a non-native species being grown in Pacific waters, which raises concerns about escapes and invasive species.

Buyer beware!

Unfortunately, the majority of the consumer public, particularly in the US, is unaware of the threats posed by net-pen salmon farming. Most think of farmed salmon as a healthy and responsible alternative to red meat or other proteins.

We’re reaching out to consumers and seafood suppliers in the US — since about 90% of BC’s farmed salmon is consumed there — to tell them the real story about the salmon produced by these floating feedlots.